Federal leaders’ debates conflicts with countrywide environment panel in October

The official English-language leaders’ debate for the fall election is set to conflict with more than 100 planned all-candidates events focused on the environment.

GreenPAC, a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to electing environmentalist candidates, announced in early June that it would help co-ordinate environment debates in ridings across the country on Oct. 7.

Several weeks ago, the group learned the about the timing of one of the two official campaign debates — also Oct. 7.

Holding the debates at the same time would force voters to split their attention, or choose to watch just one debate live, potentially to the detriment of both events that hope to reach the widest audience possible.

GreenPAC’s executive director says it became clear after speaking with the Leaders’ Debates Commission that it would not adjust its schedule.

Sabrina Bowman says she understand the commission was operating under constraints, but had hoped it would be more flexible.